The Universal Ethnography Museum in Sibiu, the place where you discover the history of the entire world.

The "Franz Binder" Universal Ethnography Museum

The "Franz Binder" Universal Ethnography Museum is part of the National "ASTRA" Complex in Sibiu, being the only one in Romania that researches universal heritage and ethnography. The museum is housed in a building constructed in the neo-Gothic style between 1865 and 1867 in the Small Square of Sibiu, known especially as the Hermes House or the House of the Association of Small Craftsmen. In fact, the original role of the building was to gather all the guilds of Sibiu under one roof.

Inauguration and Collections

The Universal Ethnography Museum was inaugurated in 1993 and has been part of the "ASTRA" museum complex from the very beginning.

The "Franz Binder" Collection

The most important collection within the museum is the "Franz Binder" Collection. The person it is named after was a Sibiu merchant who lived between 1824 and 1875 and spent 14 years traveling across Africa to conduct various businesses. Between 1862 and 1854, he was even the consul of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in Sudan.

Throughout his career, Franz Binder, a passionate enthusiast of African culture, collected ethnographically significant objects from this region. The approximately 500 pieces were entirely donated to the museum that now bears his name.

Other Notable Collectors

Another important collector is Andreas Beckner, a doctor with origins from Sibiu who, during his travels in China, Japan, Siam, and India, collected several items from these regions, including a samurai armor from Yokohama, Japan.

Five other significant collections make up the Universal Ethnography Museum in Sibiu, with objects from areas such as:

• Ethiopia
• Brazil
• Norway
• Egypt
• America
• Australia
• Oceania

Among the noteworthy items is a mummy with a sarcophagus found 150 kilometers from Cairo, dating back to the Ptolemaic period, around 40 BC.